AbstractBackground: We aimed to explore relations between symptomatic remission and functionality evaluation in schizophrenia patients treated with paliperidone extended-release (ER), as seen in a normal day-to-day practice, using flexible dosing regimens of paliperidone ER. We explored symptomatic remission rate in patients treated with flexibly dosed paliperidone ER by 8 items of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and change of Personal and Social Performance (PSP) scale. Method: This was a 12-week multicenter, open-label, prospective clinical study conducted in in-patient and outpatient populations. Flexible dosing in the range 3-12 mg/day was used throughout the study. All subjects attended clinic visits on weeks 0, 4, 8, and 12 as usual clinical practice for the 12-week observation period. Data were summarized with respect to demographic and baseline characteristics, efficacy measurement with PANSS scale, PSP, and social functioning score, and safety observations. Descriptive statistics were performed to identify the retention rate at each visit as well as the symptomatic remission rate. Summary statistics of average doses the subjects received were based on all subjects participating in the study. Results: A total of 480 patients were enrolled. Among them, 426 patients (88.8%) had evaluation at week 4 and 350 (72.9%) completed the 12-week evaluation. Patients with at least moderate severity of schizophrenia were evaluated as “mild” or better on PANSS scale by all 8 items after 12 weeks of treatment with paliperidone ER. There was significant improvement in patients’ functionality as measured by PSP improvement and score changes. Concerning the other efficacy parameters, PANSS total scale, PSP total scale, and social functioning total scale at the end of study all indicated statistically significant improvement by comparison with baseline. The safety profile also demonstrated that paliperidone ER was well-tolerated without clinically significant changes after treatment administration. Conclusions: Although the short-term nature of this study may limit the potential for assessing improvements in function, it is noteworthy that in the present short-term study significant improvements in patient personal and social functioning with paliperidone ER treatment were observed, as assessed by PSP scale. Trial Registration: Clinical Trials. PAL-TWN-MA3

Background Schizophrenia is a severe form of mental illness affecting about 24 million people worldwide (7 per 1000 adult population), mostly in the age group 15-35 years. Although the incidence is low (3/10,000), the prevalence is high due to chronicity [1]. Deficits in social functioning can be observed throughout the course of * Correspondence: yeh.yuchi@gmail.com 8 Department of Psychiatry, Cathay General Hospital, Taipei 10630, Taiwan Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

schizophrenia: in the early stages, during acute exacerbations, and over long-term maintenance treatment. The early course of schizophrenia typically includes a prodromal phase characterized by nonspecific symptoms and behaviors, a formal onset/deteriorative stage with active psychosis, cognitive impairment, negative symptoms, and social deficits, and a period of several years following the initial episode that often includes repeated episodes of psychosis with a progressive increase in residual symptoms and functional decline. There is general

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...treatment for schizophrenia?
What is schizophrenia and what are the symptoms –
Figure 1
Schizophrenia is a brain disorder which can affect a person’s mental well-being. Suffering from schizophrenia can terrify people and make them withdrawn from family and friends or make them extremely agitated. Some people with the disorder are known to hear voices, believe people are trying to harm them or are reading their minds. The exact cause is unknown, however many scientists believe that genes and environment both play a role together. Within the brain, the level of dopamine and glutamine, both chemical messengers, may be out of balance. Another cause may come from the brain structure being slightly abnormal. For example this brain scan (see figure 1) of identical twins show that the brain on the left has much larger/fluid filled ventricles which is common for schizophrenic patients, compared with the twin that does not have the illness on the right. [1]
It is difficult to acquire accurate statistics on schizophrenia due to the nature of the illness, however it is estimated that about 7 per thousand of the adult population, mostly in the age group 15-35 years are effected by the illness. This has been calculated to be 24 million people worldwide.
Though the occurrence is quite low compared to other illnesses, it lasts a long period of time can sometimes cause a long-term change in the body....

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I have always found Schizophrenia very fascinating subject. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder in which personal, social, and occupational functioning deteriorates as a result of strange perceptions, unusual emotions, and motor abnormalities (Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology, sixth edition). People with schizophrenia feel like they are not in control of their own bodies. They actually do lose control of themselves. Their minds start thinking horrible thing and they lose contact with reality. Many are not able to continue to live their everyday lives and have to be moved into institution until they can find the right medication to treat them effectively. I find it extremely interesting because no matter how much we know about the brain, it still can surprise us. I read in a few different articles that if you do a “cats” scan on a person with schizophrenia and one without you can tell a significant difference. People with Schizophrenia clam they hear, see, and some even feel things that no one else can; things that aren’t there. They usually have very disturbing thoughts and ideas. Many want to hurt themselves and other that are close to them. During my research I found that most if not all have tried to commit suicide, at least once in their life time. After extinctive research they now believe that schizophrenia is a genetic disorder and...

...﻿The Causes and Effects of Schizophrenia In Children
Schizophrenia is one of the most severe mental illnesses that affects one to two percent of people worldwide. The disorder more commonly affects people between the ages of 16 and 25, though it is very rare schizophrenia can develop at a very young age. Even though the causes of schizophrenia are still unknown, perinatal viral infections, traumatic events and substance abuse can be some of the leading factors when diagnosing someone with the illness. Due to schizophrenia’s highly disruptive delusions and disorganized thought patterns, it affects the way the person perceives the world making it next to impossible to live a normal life. As there is no single cause of schizophrenia treatments mainly focus on eliminating the symptoms leading up to the disease, such as: antipsychotic medication and various psychological treatments. Given the complexity of schizophrenia there isn’t just one main cause, therefore the effects and treatments differ from patient to patient.
The causes of schizophrenia have been the subject of debate, with various factors as to what might cause the disease. Since there is no definitive answer as to what triggers schizophrenia there has been reason to believe that many different elements are known to lead to it. Viruses have been known to...

... Schizophrenia is defined as a group of psychotic disorders involving major disturbances in perception, language, thought, emotion, and behavior; the individual withdraws from people and reality, often into a fantasy life of delusions and hallucinations. Schizophrenia means 'split mind,' but the name really refers to the fragmenting of thought processes and emotions found in schizophrenic disorders. Schizophrenia is characterized by psychological disturbances in five areas; perception, language, thought, affect (emotions), and behavior.
Perceptual symptoms can vary from patient to patient. This is because the senses of people with schizophrenia may be either enhanced or blunted. The filtering and selection processes that allow most people to concentrate on whatever he or she chooses are impaired, and sensory stimulation is distorted. People with schizophrenia also experience hallucinations. Hallucinations are sensory perceptions that occur without an external stimulus. They can occur in any of the senses, but auditory hallucinations (hearing voices and sounds) are the most common among schizophrenic patients. People with schizophrenia often hear voices speaking their thoughts aloud, commenting on their behavior, or telling them what to do. Voices tend to come from inside their own heads or from an external source such as an animal, telephone wires, or a TV set. Rarely,...

...this field have attempted to classify types of schizophrenia. According to the DSM-III there were five different types (disorganized, catatonic, paranoid, residual, and undifferentiated) however, the first three were originally proposed by Kraepelin. Currently today, these classifications are still being used in the DSM-V, however predicting the outcomes of the disorder are not reliably alone in the diagnostic process. This resulted in the use of other systems to assist in classifying the types of disorders, which are based on the preponderance of “positive” vs ‘negative” symptoms. Researchers hope that the differentiating types of schizophrenia based on clinical symptoms will help to determine different etiologies or causes of the disorder (Schizophrenia.com, 1996-2010).
According to (NIMH 2009) schizophrenia affect about 1% of the world population. In the United States one in a hundred people about 2.5 million, have this disease. In this paper we will discuss the history of Schizophrenia. Also discussed will include the diagnostic criteria, treatment and what current and future research of Schizophrenia will entail.
History of Schizophrenia-V. Rowles
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...disorder known as Schizophrenia. This disorder contains many symptoms and can appear during any stage of life. You will find how long this disorder has existed and how patients with this disorder deal with the symptoms. Schizophrenia is not a terribly common disease but it can be a serious and chronic one. Worldwide about 1 percent of the population is diagnosed with schizophrenia, and approximately 1.2% of Americans (3.2 million) have the disorder.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects the way a person acts, thinks, and sees the world. Their perception of reality is somewhat shattered and can often lead to a loss of contact with reality. Victims of this disease often see or hear things that aren’t there, speak in strange ways, believe that someone could be out to harm them, or feel like they are being watched/ followed. As a result, schizophrenia makes it difficult to manage everyday life. Many people suffering may withdraw for the outside world or act out in confusion and fear. Schizophrenia tends to be more severe in men than in women and the earlier it is seen, the more severe it is in the future.
No one knows how long schizophrenia has been around but it is said that the disease has been around since the late middle ages, yet no one is clear when it was first discovered. Records from the ancient world are sketchy because the...

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Schizophrenia
Most people go about their day without worrying about how difficult seemingly simple tasks can be. However, some people in this world can’t do things like watch television, talk on the phone, or converse with co-workers without professional help. Approximately 54 million Americans suffer from some sort of mental illness per year and a very few of those suffer from a chronic, severe disorder called schizophrenia. Experts are not sure on the exact causes of schizophrenia. Many say it is a mixture of genes and environment. What is known for sure are the signs and symptoms of schizophrenia.
The most common positive symptoms are hallucinations, delusions, dysfunctional thinking, and some movement disorders. Hallucinations are things a person sees, feels, smells, or hears that are not really there. The most common hallucinations are “voices” the sufferer hears. Those voices talk to the person and usually tell them what to do or tell them they are in danger. Sometimes, if there are multiple voices, they talk to each other as well. Delusions are false beliefs that are abnormal to their culture and lifestyle. Sufferers commonly believe people are trying to control or hurt them.
Negative symptoms are hard to recognize as schizophrenia and are often mistaken for symptoms of other disorders. Those are the “flax affect”, lack...

...SCHIIZOPHRENIA
Schizophrenia
Abstract
Schizophrenia is known to be a very destructive illness to the victims of the disorderliness and their families. The illness is a mystery to most people because of lack of knowledge and very little research. The symptoms of the illness usually become apparent in its victims shortly after a person finishes high school and increases in severity throughout adulthood. Schizophrenia shows itself in many forms and at the same time it has predictable symptoms and destructive progressions. Past interpretations of this illness causes the person inflicted to live under a stigma. This stigma is widely due to the illness being misunderstood by most. Life is generally hard for most people living with Schizophrenia but understanding and support from family and friends in addition to medication sufferers can live a happy life.
The word “schizophrenia” is Greek in origin. It comes from the word “schizo” meaning splitting and “phrenia” meaning mind. This causes the illness of Schizophrenia to be misinterpreted and misunderstood because one could link it to split-personality disorders. (Tartakovsky 2010) Schizophrenia affects about 1% of the world’s population and doesn’t discriminate from any culture, nationality, sex or economic background. Symptoms commonly start to appear...